BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT - Research and Development for Expeditionary Warfare and Coastal Operations

The Naval Sea Systems Command, Panama City (NAVSEA Panama City) conducts research and development of techniques and technologies directed toward operations in a littoral environment in support of expeditionary warfare and coastal operations. NAVSEA Panama City's mission includes mine warfare (both mine countermeasures (MCM) and mining), amphibious warfare, diving and life support, special warfare, and other missions conducted in the coastal region. Within these mission areas, NAVSEA Panama City is responsible for the full spectrum of research, development and acquisition, and support functions. Typical functions include fundamental research; concept formulation; assessment of system and subsystem requirements; development, analysis and evaluation of concepts, systems and subsystems; and development of operational concepts and tactics. NAVSEA Panama City is interested in receiving proposals for research and development in all of its mission areas. This notice constitutes a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) as contemplated in FAR 6.102(d)2. It is intended that this BAA be open for a period of one year from the date of publication. Specific areas of interest include, but are not limited to: (1) environmental data collection, monitoring, analysis, or display; (2) multifunction underwater sensing designs and technology; (3) image and sensor data processing; (4) modeling and simulation; (5) innovative conventional and non-conventional systems for MCM, amphibious warfare, naval mining, diving and life support, homeland security, force protection or special warfare tactics, techniques, procedures applicable to all phases of the battle timeline including surveillance, targeting, acquisition, and all terminal phases including amphibious logistics and the moving of cargo from afloat to ashore, consistent with ship-to-objective-maneuver and sea basing concepts; (6) shipboard system modular integration concepts; (7) innovative and non conventional concepts for application of technology, engineering and systems to of coastal operations and coastal warfare including waterproofing, shock mitigation and isolation, and human systems interfaces; (8) lasers, radar, millimeter wave, or other high energy sensors or weapons; (9) command, control, communication, localization, navigation, guidance and data transmission in the air, sea, or thru the ground; (10) concepts and systems for remote control of sea mines; (11) autonomous and remotely controlled vehicles: air, surface, sea surface, undersea or ground; (12) Techniques or methods to increase the autonomy of current unmanned vehicles (air, surface, sea surface, or ground); (13) information proce ssing, fusion, and display; (14) data fusion/correlation for applications involving methodologies to translate/correlate data between different acoustic sensors/frequencies so that data/images taken with one sensor can be translated into equivalent data/images with another system; (15) Chemical / Biological individual protection; (16) Kinetic and mechanistic studies of atmospheric transformations in enclosed environments; Proposals may be submitted by any commercial firm, Institution of higher education (other than federal government) with degree-granting programs in science and/or engineering (universities), or by consortia led by such entities. NAVSEA Panama City encourages participation by small business, small disadvantaged businesses, woman-owned small business concerns, and historically black colleges and universities. The following guidelines apply to concept papers o r proposals. Typically each proposal may be: (1) funded incrementally for periods up to three years subject to the availability of appropriations; (2) on average, be funded between $10,000 to $1,000,000, with the size of each dependent upon the topic (although NAVSEA Panama City reserves the right to entertain larger proposals based on the availability of funds); (3) more than one effort may be funded for an individual topic; (4) NAVSEA Panama City is not interested in concepts that already have been developed or proven (even if they never have been sold before); (5) NAVSEA Panama City is seeking proposals for scientific study and experimentation directed toward advancing the state-of-the-art or increasing knowledge or understanding; and (6) deliverables should demonstrate the results of scientific study and experimentation rather than focus on a specific system or hardware sol ution. Proposals for evolutionary engineering of improvements are inappropriate under BAA authority and are not allowed. In order to minimize the cost regarding proposal preparation, as an initial step, interested parties should submit concept or "white" papers briefly summarizing the technical direction, relevance and scope of the proposed effort, and a brief synopsis of qualifications based on accomplishments, and provide a rough order of magnitude cost. White papers should be no more than 5-7 pages in length. White papers (and any resulting proposals) will be evaluated using the following evaluation criteria: (1) Overall scientific, technical, and socio-economic merits of the proposed effort; (2) Potential naval relevance and contributions of the effort to NAVSEA Panama City's specific mission areas; (3) Degree to which new and creative solutions to technical issues importan t to NAVSEA Panama City programs are proposed as well as the degree to which technical data and/or computer software developed under the proposed effort are to be delivered to NAVSEA Panama City with unrestricted (Government Purpose) rights; (4) The offeror's capabilities, related experience, facilities, techniques or unique combinations of these which are integral factors for achieving the proposal objectives; (5) The qualifications, capabilities and experience of the proposed Principal Investigator, team leader or key personnel who are critical in achieving the proposal objectives; (6) Realism of the proposed cost and the availability of funds. Based on evaluation of the White papers, participants may be selected and invited to submit full technical and cost proposals for evaluation by NAVSEA Panama City using the above noted evaluation criteria. An invitation to submit a ful l proposal does not guarantee funding. THE GOVERNMENT RESERVES THE RIGHT TO SELECT FOR FUNDING ANY, ALL, PART, OR NONE OF THE RESPONSES RECEIVED. For efforts funded as legally binding commitments, evaluation of the socio-economic merits will include the extent of commitment in providing meaningful subcontracting opportunities for small business, small disadvantaged businesses, woman-owned small business concerns, and historically black colleges and universities. This is to notify potential proposers that each grant or cooperative agreement that may be placed under this announcement or solicitation to an institution of higher education must include the following clause: "As a condition for receipt of funds available to the Department of Defense (DoD) under this award, the recipient agrees that it is not an institution that has a policy of denying, and that it is not an instituti on that effectively prevents, the Secretary of Defense from obtaining for military recruiting purposes: (A) entry to campuses or access to students on campuses; or (B) access to directory information pertaining to students. If the recipient is determined, using procedures established by the Secretary of Defense to implement section 558 of Public Law 103-337 (1994), to be such an institution during the period of performance of this agreement, and therefore to be in breach of this clause, the Government will cease all payments of DoD funds under this agreement and all other DoD grants and cooperative agreements, and it may suspend or terminate such grants and agreements unilaterally for material failure to comply with the terms and conditions of award." If your institution has been identified under the procedures established by the Secretary of Defense to implement section 558, t hen: (1) no funds available to DoD may be provided to your institution through any grant, including any existing grant; (2) as a matter of policy, this restriction also applies to any cooperative agreement, and (3) your institution is not eligible to receive a grant or cooperative agreement in response to this solicitation. Proposals may be submitted by any commercial firm, or institution of higher education. There is no longer a requirement that the entity be U.S. in origin. White papers may be submitted any time prior to expiration of the BAA. There is no set date for submission. The World Wide Web page for NAVSEA Panama City may be accessed for additional information regarding the mission, programs and objectives of the activity at http:\\www.ncsc.navy.mil. The following e-mail points of contact are provided for information regarding technical programs/technologies of in terest within the warfare areas supported by NAVSEA Panama City (Do not address white papers or proposals to these individuals): Basic Research - Dr. Ray Lim (contact@example.gov) Exploratory Development - Dr. Paul Carrol (contact@example.gov) Advanced Development - Mr. Don Robeson (robesonde@.ncsc.navy.mil) . (5) The following e-mail points of contact are provided for information regarding contractual issues: Primary POC - Mr. John Miller (contact@example.gov) Backup POC - Ms. Carol Dreger (contact@example.gov). POC FOR WHITE PAPERS AND PROPOSALS: NAVSEA PANAMA CITY, 6703 WEST HIGHWAY 98, PANAMA CITY, FL 32407-7001, ATTN: CODE XPS1, MR. JOHN MILLER +1 (555) 000-0000, FAX: +1 (555) 000-0000. This is a re-issue of BAA 01-02.